HGB New Years Day Special 2017 - Indonesian Embassy

 

 Happy New Year Everybody! We hope 2017 is a year of love, hope and peace for you. In this special, we talk about a few changes to the format of the podcast, plans for the new year, introduce the ambassadors for our newly launched Ambassador Program and the history and haunting of the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C., also known as the Walsh Mansion. Let's make 2017 spooky!

Embassy of Indonesia - The Walsh Mansion

In the Dupont Circle of Washington, D.C. stands the Walsh Mansion. Dupont Circle is a historic district that is part of the original old city designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. It remained mostly undeveloped until after the Civil War, when grand homes and a traffic circle were built. The rowhouses here are in the Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne styles. What had been here before the neighborhood was a brickyard and a slaughterhouse. The name Dupont is to honor Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont.

Thomas J. Walsh was Irish and he emigrated from Ireland in 1869. He didn't have a dime to his name, but he built a small fortune working as a miner, carpenter and hotel manager. The fortune almost disappeared during the Panic of 1893. With the littlebit of life savings he managed to hold onto, he moved his wife and two kids to Ouray, Colorado in 1896. He bought the Camp Bird Mine fairly cheaply because it was thought to be dried up. He struck a massive gold and silver vein. He quickly became a multi-millionaire. He moved the family to Washington, D.C. and began construction on a massive mansion on Massachusetts Avenue NW. Construction took more than two years and finished in 1903 at a cost of $835,000. Henry Anderson was the architect and he designed the staircase to resemble one found on an ocean liner. The house is influenced by the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. For those who don't know, like us, this was the most important center of architectural education in the Western world in the 19th century.

The Walsh Mansion has 60 rooms, a grand staircase, a theater, a ballroom, elevator and a French salon. The family filled it with $2 million in furnishings. Thomas put a gold bar in the archway over the door as a symbol of why he was able to build such a large home. *Fun fact: One New Year's bash hosted at the mansion in the 1920s reportedly had the guests polishing off 288 fifths of Scotch, 480 quarts of champagne, 40 gallons of beer, 35 bottles of liquors and 48 quarts of assorted cocktails.* Thomas' daughter Evalyn married Edward Beale "Ned" McLean. His family owned The Washington Post and the couple moved into the mansion after Thomas passed away. The cursed Hope Diamond comes into the picture here in 1910. Ned bought the stone for his wife for $180,000. She was the last private owner of the diamond. The Hope Dianomd is a blue-colored Indian Diamond and the reason it is cursed is because it is reputedly part of a stone stolen from the french crown jewels.

During World War II, Evalyn let the Red Cross use the home for free. She passed away in 1947, heavily in hock and the Walsh Mansion was sold to cover her debts. The Government of Indonesia bought it in 1952 and they use it as their embassy. They got a great deal. They paid only $335,000. They spent and additional $75,000 refurbishing and added two demon-like statues from Bali . These statues are believed to possess the power to ward off evil and attract good.

Did the curse affect the McLean family? The McLean’s son died in an automobile accident, Ned had an affair and their daughter died from an overdose of sleeping pills. Staff of the embassy claim that the building is haunted. It would seem that Evalyn has never left. Her apparition is seen walking the beautiful ornate stairs. There is also another female spirit here that no one knows who she is, but she appears naked. This ghost was verified and written about by Hans Holzer.

New Years Eve Special 2016

Thunder rages outside and there is a knock at the door. Through the rain slicked window, you see a dark figure standing on the front landing. There is another knock at the door and then a persistent banging. The figure will not be satisfied until you open that door. It is New Year's Eve and depending upon where you live in the world, this figure, when it finally steps into the light of a flash of lightning will reveal itself to be one of two hideous looking creatures.

In Wales, this monster standing on the stoop is Mari Lwyd. This is the grey mare. She appears as the skull of a mare, sheathed in white cloth and decorated with the accoutrements of flowers and ribbons. She is here to challenge you to a wassailing contest and she is not alone. She is accompanied by mummers. And your terror drifts away as you realize that this is Halloween on New Year's Eve! This is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years and has been passed down as an oral tradition. Mari Lwyd or "Y Fari Lwyd" actually translates to "The Grey Mary," but more likely comes from the stem "mare" rather than "Mary." And mare also is part of the word nightmare and here you have a grey nightmare.

Mummers are merrymakers dressed in masks and costumes and wassailing is singing and the verses that are sung are created anew every year. Because this is an annual tradition house-holders are able to prepare in advance their response to the verses that Mari Lwyd brings to their door. The creature is carried much like a puppet. The horses skull is placed on a pole and then the puppeteer hides beneath the sackcloth or material. When the knock comes on the door, there are two options reminiscent of trick or treating: open up and present gifts of food and drinks like a treat or take up the challenge of a singing match like a trick.

Different areas carried on different variations of the custom and most were conducted strictly by men as they got pretty chaotic. Revelers carrying on the way they did a couple hundred years ago, would get them arrested today. Some villages featured itinerant singing mummer plays with a horse head as the star attraction. At another village, there may just be verbal jousting with the Mari Lwyd figure-head. And in other places, Mari Lwyd was out and out feared.

Sample verses:

First Round:

The Mari Lwyd party sing:
"Open your doors,
Let us come and play,
It's cold here in the snow.
At Christmastide

The House-holders reply
"Go away you old monkeys
Your breath stinks
And stop blathering.
It's Christmastide."

Second Round:
Outsiders:
"Our mare is very pretty (The Mari Lwyd),
Let her come and play,
Her hair is full of ribbons
At Christmastide."

House-holders (Giving in)
Instead of freezing,
We'll lead the Mari,
Inside to amuse us
Tonight is Christmastide."

Or, alternatively

House-holders (Repelling invaders thus)
Instead of freezing,
Take the Mari home,
It's past your bedtime
Tonight is Christmastide."

Now we travel to another part of the world. In Japan, this figure standing on the front stoop is Namahage. Although this creature is a hideous demon, it apparently is bringing good luck. The legend is that the Han emperor brought five demonic ogres with him to Japan a little more than two millennia ago. These demonic ogres are called "oni"in Japanese and they reputedly stole crops and young women from the village of Oga in Japan. The villagers banded together to defeat the oni and they decided to plot a trick. They offered to give up all their young women if the demons could build a stone staircase of one thousand stairs in a single night. But, if the ogres failed to build the stairs all the way to the local temple, they would have to leave Oga forever. The challenge was accepted and the oni managed to get to stair 999. A villager crowed like a cock and the ogres though that the dawn had arrived and they fled.

And now this legend is carried on as a custom. The Namahage are imitated by young men wearing demonic masks and traditional straw garments. They go around to all the houses and burst in searching for new community members. These members could be young children or new wives. The Namahage are there to encourage good behavior like obeying parents and in-laws. A throaty scream is used to make these requests. Other household members come to rescue vouching that the child or new relative is a good person. The demon is then appeased with  sake and food.

What is New Year's Eve without some talk of bars. Molly Dawn Farquhar suggested we look at some haunted bars for this occasion. Many of you listeners are probably either going to have a few drinks or you did have a few drinks to bring in the new year. The town of Roslyn in Washington state is nestled in the Cascade Mountains. It came to fame through the television show "Northern Exposure." What many people probably do not know is that the city of Roslyn is quite the haunted little place and there are a couple bars here that back up the claim. But first, we need to look at the reason why these bars are haunted.

Roslyn was established as a coal mining town by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1886. C.P. Brosious, Walter J. Reed, and Ignatius A. Navarre discovered the coal vein in 1883. Once the town was founded, men came from all over the world to work the coal mines. By 1900, 40% of the population was foreign born. And very interestingly, many of the residents were black as well. A miner's strike over work hours caused the company to seek out black miners in other parts of America. Between 1888 and 1889, 300 black miners and their families were brought into Roslyn. After the strike, the white and black miners worked peaceably together. And the work was very dangerous.

The Roslyn Sentinal of March 1, 1895, carried the following story about Roslyn's name:

"On the far away shores of Delaware, midst the sand hills, peach orchards, and blue blooded 'skeeters', nestles the little hamlet, named Roslyn over a century ago.  The high bred people were of primitive stock.  The daughters of these householders were the special objects of the devotion of many enterprising young men in the neighborhood.  Now, in this hamlet there lived a handsome, vivacious maiden, who was particularly dear to the heart of a brave and sturdy  young man who was penetrating the wild northwest in 1886, in search of fame and fortune.  This gentleman was one of our early pioneers, and it became his lot to name this new mining camp.  After mature deliberation, he christened the town Roslyn on August 10, 1886, after the town in which his loved one lived.  The event was duly celebrated and the name was placed on a board an inscribed with a pine cone.  It was nailed to a large pine tree which stood near Patrick's business property.   Whether Mr. Bullitt later realized his hopes in love, we do not know, but if his affairs of heart were as fickle as Roslyn's fortunes, he had an interesting time."

The dangerous work led to two separate explosions. In May of 1892, an explosion killed forty-five men. Two of them were father and son, Joseph and Joe, who was not yet twenty. In October 1909, sixteen men were killed in mine number four. There was no warning and the explosion was actually two separate eruptions that blew out windows up to a half mile away from the shaft. Now it would seem that two local bars harbor some of the spirits of the victims. These bars would be the Pioneer Restaurant & Sody-licious Bar and the Brick Tavern.

 It is our understanding that the Pioneer Restaurant and Sody-licious Bar is now closed. The owner was Steve Ojurovich and he was a fourth generation resident of the town. His great-grandfather came over from Croatia to mine coal. The building had once housed the Pioneer Grocery Store and it was a Sears and Roebuck before that. The name for the Sodylicious Bar name came from the soda bottling company that once existed here and carried on some not-so-legal bottling during prohibition. Secret underground tunnels helped facilitate the liquor running. One night, it is said, a man was snooping around and ended up shot down in those tunnels. According to Steve, the ghost of this man is seen in the basement. Steve said that he first saw the ghost there on the day he bought the place. It was a full bodied apparition that he first noticed out of the corner of his eye. The spirit was a man wearing a blue plaid shirt and jeans and he had a beard. He looked like a miner or logger. When Steve saw him, he first thought it was his dad and he called out. The figure disappeared and he searched the building. He was all alone. He went back to his work and the spirit appeared again.

There are other ghosts that have been reported at this location. A woman's ghost has been seen in a second story window. She was wearing a white blouse with puffy sleeves and her hair waspulled back and braided. The owner of the grocery store was named Edna and she had died in the building. Some suspect the spirit belongs to her. One terrifying experience that happened involved a wine bottle being lifted out of a rack and thrown across the room, smashing against a wall, just missing a waitress.

The other haunted bar, The Brick Tavern, is next door. The Brick, as locals refer to it, is the oldest continuously running bar in the state. It was built in 1889. One of the unique features of this bar reminds us of our episode on Casey Moore's Oyster House. There is a running water spittoon, a vestige of the days when miners using it for spitting and for another purpose similar to the Blarney Stone restroom. People think of it as a rite of passage to spit into the spittoon. The Brick Regatta is held each March. Residents make tiny homemade boats and race them down the spittoon.

Jim Luster owned the bar from 1982 to 1997 and Lucky Najar's family bought it in 1997. Both men claim that they and their employees have had supernatural experiences. Najar said one of his bartenders was so freaked out by something that happened when he was working in the bar alone that he ran out and never came back. He also says that on one occasion he took an armful of pool cues downstairs and laid them on a table. He went upstairs, but when he came back down the cues were standing against the wall and the table.

There are three ghosts reported here. One is a cowboy looking entity, another is a little girl and the third plays the piano backstage. A bartender told author Leslie Rule that in 2003, he saw the little girl's ghost. He and a roommate shared an upstairs room where they also monitored the security cameras. One night, they saw movement on the camera even though the bar was locked up for the night. Then they saw a little girl looking at them, or rather, in the direction of the camera. She was as tall as the pool tables. His roommate ran to check the bar and the bartender watched as the little girl hid behind a pool table. She then disappeared. He gave notice about living there, but still continued on as a bartender.

Then one night, he and a co-worker had a really chilling experience. They heard the sound of chopping wood coming from the basement. When they got down there, they found a wooden chair that had been chopped to pieces by what was probably an axe. Perhaps a logger or miner's axe. Is this the same apparition as the one seen at the Pioneer Restaurant? There are jail cells in the basement as well and it is thought that this was a miner's jail.

Do these bars in Roslyn play host to ghosts in the afterlife? Are these bars haunted? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes
Ending song is by: https://www.ibaudio.com

HGB Ep. 173 - Commissariat Store in Brisbane

 
Moment in Oddity - Posthumous Executions

A posthumous execution is a ceremonial or ritual mutilation of a corpse as a type of punishment. Most people probably think that it is a waste of time to disinter a body to ritually execute that person, but for Christians centuries ago, there was a real purpose behind the morbid practice. It was believed that a body needed to be buried facing the East and that the body needed to be whole and intact in order to meet God when the resurrection occurred. Dismemberment was believed to stop the body from rising, so it was considered a form of punishment. Corpses were generally hung in public for a time and then dismembered. Men like Oliver Cromwell and Robert Blake were subjected to posthumous executions. Cromwell's head was displayed on a stick for nearly 25 years and was never returned to his body. Even stranger is the fact that this practice still continues on even in the modern era. In 1986, General Gracia Jacques, who was a supporter of Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier was exhumed and his body was ritually beaten to "death." Bodies have also been unearthed to stand trial in the past. Interrogating or executing a dead body, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Florence Lawrence Commits Suicide

On this day, December 28th, in 1938, the silent-film star Florence Lawrence commits suicide in Beverly Hills. She had been born as Florence Bridgewood in 1886 to a vaudeville actress. Her mother took her on the road and she soon was joining her mother on stage. She had her first movie role in 1907. She appeared in nearly 250 films and was so successful that she was able to buy her own car which was unheard of in the early 20th century. Although she was famous for being a silent film star, she was also a talented inventor. She designed the first “auto signaling arm,” which was a mechanical turn signal that worked by pressing a button that raised or lowered a flag on the car’s rear bumper that told other drivers which way a car was going to turn. She also invented the first mechanical brake signal that worked the same way. When a driver pressed the brake, a stop sign flipped up on the back bumper. Unfortunately,she did not patent these inventions and so she received no credit or profit from either of them. She was only 52 when she took her own life.

Commissariat Store in Brisbane (Suggested by Danika Ehlers)

The Commissariat Store in Brisbane is the second oldest building in the city and dates back to the early years when Brisbane was a penal colony. The penal settlement in Brisbane was the most violent and toughest on the continent. Convict laborers were used to build many of the early buildings in the settlement, which included the store. A violent confrontation during that construction seems to have led to at least one haunting at the store, but there could be more spirits hanging around this building that now houses a museum that includes some morbid artifacts among its displays. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Commissariat Store.

Brisbane is a very old city, one of the oldest in Australia. The area was inhabited by the Turrbal and Jagera Peoples and they called it Mian-jin, which means "place shaped like a spike." As was the case with much of early Australia, Brisbane started as a penal colony. The first European to discover Moreton Bay was James Cook in 1770. The English man who circumnavigated Australia and recognized it as a continent was Matthew Flinders and he was the first European to detail the Queensland coast more thoroughly, which he did in 1799. The bay is surrounded by red-colored cliffs and he called it Red Cliff Point. Flinders is who put forward the idea that Australia be named Australia as well.

The Governor of New South Wales was Sir Thomas Brisbane and he ordered further exploration of Moreton Bay because he wanted to establish a new northern penal settlement. Because of his leadership, the river was called the Brisbane and later the settlement would carry the same name. Non-convicts started coming to Brisbane in 1838 and by 1842, Brisbane was declared a free settlement. Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859 and Sir George Ferguson Bowen became the first governor of Queensland. Brisbane was chosen as the capitol at that time, but it was not incorporated until 1902.

The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement was considered experimental at the time it was founded. Commandant Henry Miller was tasked with finding a good location. The first place he chose proved to be indefensible and malarial mosquitoes swarmed heavily. The second location was found in 1825 and was a triangle of land bounded on two sides by the Brisbane River and the escarpment which is now Wickham Terrace. An added bonus was that there was a natural barrier against escape. This settlement was as tough as they come. Only the most hardened criminals and re-offenders were sent to Moreton Bay. The prison was very violent and death from disease was rampant. Dress for the convicts were grey jackets with the word "Felon" painted across the back, trousers that buttoned at the side and leather hats. The convicts worked in chain gangs of up to 15 men and they were connected by fitted leg irons that had leather cuffs to prevent chaffing. Between the irons was a length of chain attached to a rope that was used to keep the chain from dragging on the ground.

One of the jobs given to the convict laborers was the building of the Commissariat Store that would be Queensland's first stone building. The construction began in 1827 and would last for approximately two years. The local aborigines would occasionally raid stocks of supplies for sugar and flour and so this store was built to be secure with walls over two feet thick. The building was set into the surrounding riverbank between William Street and Queens Wharf Road. It was a perfect location with a pier at the front of the building making the delivery of government supplies easy. These supplies included tools, seeds, grain and various other provisions. The goods stayed here until a department requisitioned them and these included stores at Dunwich, the pilot station at Amity Point and upriver to Ipswich.

When the penal settlement was closed the Commissariat Store building served a number of other purposes. It became a repository for the Queensland State Archives and later a migrant depot. It is one of only two buildings to have survived from the convict era. Today, the Royal Historical Society of Queensland has its headquarters located inside the Commissariat Store building. They opened a museum there with many artifacts that may carry the same affect as objects displayed at Ripley's Odditoriums. There is a bottle from the St. Helena Island Penal Establishment that has the finger from an unknown convict sealed inside and a gallows beam from Boggo Road Gaol. These kinds of objects sometimes carry energy within them that can lead to supernatural occurrences. And it would seem that something is haunting the store.

Employees that have been working in the building alone have reported hearing strange noises like disembodied footsteps in vacant parts of the building. A side door has this phantom footsteps phenomenon occur frequently, particularly after someone knocks on the door. It sounds as though someone is approaching to open the door, then comes to a stop, but the door never opens. Objects are routinely moved from one place to another over night. And shadowy figures are seen waving from the windows of the empty building.

It is thought that one of the ghosts of the store is a convict. The former president of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, Allan Bell, remarked to The Courier Mail in an article published on October 9th in 2009, that he didn't think the building was haunted even though there are reports that a ghostly convict roams the grounds. The story that is told is that two convicts were building something in the rear yard when one of them attacked the other with an axe. The victim was wheelbarrowed to the hospital where he later died. The convict that did the murdering was John Brungar. He had been a native of Kent and was convicted of a crime for which he was given a life sentence. This meant that he would have a free trip to the penal colony of Australia. He was loaded aboard the convict transport Prince Regent on Septmeber 17, 1819. There were 159 convicts abaord the ship with 43 of them being sentenced to life sentences of servitude in Australia.

The trip took four months and the ship landed in Sydney Cove. Brungar spent a year in Sydney before he got in trouble again and was  brought up on charges at Parramatta and another two years was added to his already life sentence. He was tranferred to Newcastle in March of 1821.Four months after arriving there, he broke out and fled into the bush. He was found quickly and was given 50 lashes as punishment. He kept up the best behavior for a while and was put on a detail to transport livestock from Windsor through to Wallis' Plains. It was a poor decision on the part of the authorities as Brungar took off again. He was found once again and given 75 lashes as punishment. The guy just couldn't stay out of trouble and he was brought up on charges again that added another seven years to his life sentence. There really was no choice, but to send Brungar on to the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement.

Brungar was assigned to the chain gang that was building the Commissariat Store. On September 27, 1828, Brungar would commit his final offense. Another convict named William Perfoot was working nearby digging the trenchwork, using a mattock. His mattock was considerably lighter than the other ones and Brungar wanted to get it for his own. He first asked Perfoot to hand over the mattock. The man, of course, refused. The two got into a tussle and the overseer told Brungar to move to the other side of the trenchwork. Brungar moved, but he was seething and plotting his revenge. At midday, he decided to carry out a plan of attack. He grabbed his mattock and ran across the pit until he reached Perfoot. He slammed the pick end of the mattock into the man's skull and it sunk in two inches. Perfoot fell over, but he was not quite dead. Brungar grabbed a shovel and started digging, pretending like nothing had happened. But everybody on the convict work detail had witnessed the crime. Perfoot was loaded into a wheelbarrow and carried up the hill to the hospital. He lived for six days before he finally died from his injuries. Brungar was sent to Sydney to face murder charges before the Supreme Court and he was found guilty. This time he did not have additional years added to his sentence. He was sentenced to die and he was hanged shortly thereafter. The convict haunting the store could be either Perfoot or Brungar. Neither actually died on the property, but their deaths were connected to it or it could be somebody else's spirit.

There are many ghost stories in Brisbane. We thought we would share a few that are not connected to any particular historical properties as documented by the Brisbane History website:

"In Bardon, a few years ago a young Brisbane woman claimed that the ghost of a tall, young man with shoulder-length blond hair (a ‘surfie’ type, she called him) had appeared one night beside her bed- stark naked. Friends and neighbours told her it must have been a prowler, a burglar or wishful dreaming, but she was convinced she had been visited by a ghost. Two other young women appeared on television shortly after to tell a similar story, of a blond-haired young man, completely naked, sitting in a tree outside their house in the leafy suburb of Bardon staring in through their window. Local opinion maintained that it was the ghost of a young man whose girlfriend had once lived in the house."

"A much more sinister collection of spirits inhabit an old house in another suburb on the western side of Brisbane (the address is definitely not for publication). The house has a grim history. A tenant hanged himself there in the 1920s and a previous owner refused to let anyone dig in the yard, which led to all sorts of speculation about buried bodies. Everyone who has lived in the house seems to have been caught up in its evil atmosphere, their lives disrupted by domestic arguments, mystery and cruelty. A whole team of ghostly figures appear suddenly and disappear moments later inside and outside the building. A medium called in in the 1970s told the newspapers she felt terrible anguish and pain in every room of the blighted old house."

"An old Queensland-style home at Lutwyche is said to be the lair of an unfriendly ghost. A security guard reported that he went there one hot December night at around midnight. When he entered the empty house it was freezing cold. His teeth began to chatter with cold and fear. An eerie female voice came out of the darkness, screaming at him: ‘Get out! Get out!’ Needless to say he wasted no time obeying and has sworn never to return. The exact location of the house is a carefully guarded secret, but nothing in its recorded past accounts for the presence of a ghost."

A pickle factory had once stood on the corner of Adelaide and Wharf streets. It later became the home of Radio 4BC, but was demolished some time ago. Night-time radio announcers would complain that the broadcast room would get icy cold and that they would hear the sound of someone crying out for help. The sound usually came a dumb waiter like shaft. When the building had been the pickle factory, there was a staff tea room in the back where this shaft was used to bring up food. One day, a factory worker fell down that shaft when he was fixing the lift. Could this have been his spirit? And does it still haunt that corner?

Brisbane is another city in Australia that it seems we can add to the list of haunted cities. Do the spirits of those who died in or near some of these location, still roam about in the afterlife? Is the Commissariat Store that was built on the backs of convicts, holding on to some of that negative energy and now reflecting as hauntings? Is there a spirit of a formerly alive convict hanging around the museum? Is the Commissariat Store haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 172 - Haunted Waynesville

 
Moment in Oddity - White River Monster
Suggested by: Michael Rogers

There is a large cryptid monster fish that supposedly lives in the White River of Arkansas. This creature has been dubbed the White River Monster. Sightings were first reported starting in 1915 and locals began calling it “Whitey.” A man named Bramlett Bateman was fishing along the river on July 1, 1937, when he claimed to see the creature. His description makes it sound really repulsive. He said that it had gray skin and long nasty spiny type teeth and that it was really large. He said it was, "As wide as a car and three cars long.” Reports stopped coming in for a while, but the monster was seen again in 1971. These reports sounded similar as the creature was reported to have gray skin, but these descriptions included a horn growing out of its forehead. Some witnesses said it was 20 feet long with a spiny back. Now some people may just say that there is no such thing and people were seeing some kind of mutant fish, but in 1973, the Arkansas legislature signed a bill creating the White River Monster Refuge along the White River. The refuge is located between “the southern point on the river known as Old Grand Glaize and a northern point on White River known as Rosie.” This bill makes it illegal to harm the monster within the refuge area and that certainly is odd!

This Day in History - Van Gogh Chops off Ear

On this day, December 23rd, in 1888, Artist Vincent Van Gogh chops off his left ear and gives it to a prostitute. Van Gogh was a depressed and anxious man who decided after much failure to try his hand at being an artist in 1880. His early work reflected his experiences among impoverished peasants and miners. In 1886, he moved to Paris with his brother and met other artists who taught him to use more color in his paintings. Van Gogh's mental wellness continued to deteriorate though and on December 23rd, in a fit of lunacy, he tried to attack another artist who was living with him with a knife. He turned the blade on himself and cut off the lower part of his left ear. He then allegedly wrapped up the ear and gave it to a prostitute at a brothel near him in Arles, France. He checked himself into a hospital to fix the damage and then he checked himself into a mental institution. He was there a year and created some of his most famous works at that time including a portrait that documented this tragic event in his life, "Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear." Despair and loneliness continued to plague him after his release and on July 27, 1890, he shot himself and died two days later at age 37. Today, Van Gogh's masterpieces sell for record-breaking prices,but when he was alive, he sold only one painting and was the poster boy for tortured starving artists.

Haunted Waynesville (Suggested by and research assistance: Amanda Turk)

Waynesville, Ohio is known as the "Antique Capital of the Midwest." At the town's beginnings though, it was an important Quaker settlement. The Quaker meeting established here in 1803 was the first in southwestern Ohio. A stagecoach line connected Waynesville to the rest of the state and eventually the village would serve as a stop along the Underground Railroad. Despite having a pretty peaceful beginning, Waynesville has become known as one of, if not THE most haunted city in Ohio. With thirty-six reputed haunted places, that is no wonder. In this episode, we are going to visit several historic locations that also have ghostly activity. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Waynesville!

The Hopewell and Adena tribes inhabited the area from 1000 BC to 800 AD and then the Fort Ancient People were here until 1500 AD. Six years prior to Ohio becoming a state, the village of Waynesville was founded. The year was 1797 and it was a group of English settlers, led by English engineer Samuel Heighway, that set the foundation. The group included Physician Dr. Evan Beans, Methodist minister Rev. John Smith and Scientist Sir Francis Baily. The hope was that they would establish a capital for the Northwest Territory. Heighway had already surveyed the area in 1792 and a settlement party had come out in 1796 to clear the land. They purchased 30,000 acres in the Symmes Purchase between the Little and Great Miami Rivers. The founding group brought 10 tons of supplies on a 12 by 36 foot "Kentucky Ark" flatboat and traveled via the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers to the Ohio River.

Primitive log shelters were built first with nicer log cabins following and Heighway platted out the village in a rectangular design similar to that of English villages. Formal parks and squares were arranged around a central public square. There were eleven named squares in all, each encompassing four acres. The squares still have those names today, marked on the corners with sign posts. Fishponds, groves of ornamental trees and long winding paths were incorporated as well as several fountains. A "Government House" was built in the public square. The group named the village after General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. General Wayne's troops camped on Camp Creek nearby. *Fun fact: There is a legend that the paymaster for Wayne's troops hid the payroll during a Native American attack and that the money has never been found.* When the Revolutionary War broke out, Wayne raised a regiment and he was named a colonel. His regiment fought in Canada where he was wounded. He received the rank of Brigadier General in 1777.

An interesting point in his military career occurred shortly after this promotion. General Washington asked General Wayne to use his forces to harass the British's rear station. The British General "No-Flint" Gray found out that Wayne's forces were hiding out and they hit them with a surprise attack. One hundred and fifty-eight American forces were massacred. What gave the British the upper hand in this attack was the order by General Gray to use only bayonets. That is why he was nicknamed "No Flint." He reasoned that if they only used bayonets, then they would know who the rebels were in the dark because they would be shooting their guns. It worked wonderfully and General Wayne in his shame, called for his own court martial. General Washington did not want to do that, but he yielded to General Wayne's multiple requests. The Court of Inquiry was made up of Generals Conway, Muhlenberg, Sullivan, Weedon and Huntington; Colonels Dayton, Stephens, Bradley, McClennachan, Stewart, DeHart, Thackston and Davis. The court unanimously decided that Wayne "did every duty that could be expected from an active, brave and vigilant officer, under the orders which he then had. The Court do acquit him with the highest honor."

Several of these early cabins from the early 1800s can be seen today at the Pioneer Village at the Caesar's Creek Lake area. Two of those original buildings are the Levi Luken's Cabin which is located at the front of the property and the Luken's Barn. The Lukens House was built in 1807 and is said to be haunted by the ghost of “Uncle Bob,” who was killed in an automobile accident near the site in the 1940s. The home is the only building in the village original to the site. Caesar's Creek State Park features fossils from the Ordovician period (450 and 500 million years ago) embedded in the limestone. *Fun fact from Amanda: Her parents' home has a retaining wall and outdoor steps made of this limestone and you can see shell-shaped fossils in the rock.* Waynesville was a stop on the Underground Railroad with several locations being places of refuge. Though the building no longer stands, The Old Miami House (aka, The Rogers House, The Morrow House or the Cornell House) was originally built as a tavern in 1827. Purportedly, the tavern had a hidden room in its attic and tunnels that led to other buildings in the area and down to the Little Miami River. The building served as the location of the first Waynesville National Bank and then the Wayne Township Library until 1954. A year later, the Old Miami House was torn down so that a diner could be built.

We're going to focus on three locations in Waynesville that are reportedly haunted. The town itself claims to be the most haunted in Ohio. Summer and Fall ghost tours running from May to October are available, as well as ghost hunting classes from a local group called, Paravizions.

Stetson House - The Stetson House is one of the more famous landmarks in Waynesville and is now home to Trendi Bindi's Boutique. The original building here is believed to have been a log cabin, but there is some confusion as to if that is true. The home that stands here now was built in 1810 by a wheelwright and his family. Wheelwrights would build and repair wooden wheels. Hiram and Louisa Larrick were local farmers with a growing family and they bought the house in the 1840s and renovated. They added a kitchen to the back of the house. The couple had ten children. Louisa's maiden name was Stetson. The Stetson family were hatters in New Jersey. Her brother John had contracted tuberculosis and doctor's suggested that he move to the warmer and drier air out west. He decided to stop at Louisa's on his way to the west and he stayed for a period of time in the early 1860s. His stay was not good for Louisa as she contracted TB too. John continued to Colorado where he took up panning for gold while he recovered.

He needed a good hat to protect his head and he didn't like the typical prospector's hats. He used a thick beaver felt to form a rugged hat. He did this without tanning and the hat was lighter, withstood the weather and maintained its shape. It was considered unusually large with a wide brim and high crown. He grew very fond of the hat and wore it all the time. While out on the trail, a cowboy approached him and asked to see the hat and offered to pay for it with a five dollar gold piece. Stetson jumped at the offer and he was inspired. Maybe others would buy this hat too. He had been cured of his tuberculosis and in 1865, he decided to head home. He needed money though if he was going to start a company and so he stopped at Louisa's again. He asked his sister for a loan and she gave him $60. And the Stetson Hat Company was born, along with the signature "Boss of the Plains" hat.

Although the house is called the Stetson House, the Larricks were never paid back the loan and never received any of the benefits of the success of the company. And even worse, Louisa would go on to die of the disease her brother brought her in 1879. She died in the house a little over sixty years old. 
The Larrick Family held on to the house until the turn of the century and then a young school teacher bought the home and lived there until she died in the 1950s. There is not a clear history from this point until the 1980s when an antique shop moved into the building. Another shop named the Cranberry Bog bought the shop in the 1990s and in 2007, the boutique moved into the house.

From the time that Louisa died, weird activity has been reported in the house. She was a baker and her specialty was gingerbread. Many people claim to smell the lingering scent of gingerbread. Mirrors do not stay on the walls, as though someone does not like that they cannot see their reflection. A woman named Samantha McKeehan said she was shopping for a quilt here and when she was upstairs she felt cold fingers tough the back of her neck. She said, “I just had to get out of there. I felt goose bumps.” A full bodied apparition has been seen and photographed featuring a dark-haired woman in period clothing. This could be either Louisa or the school teacher. One man posted an eerie photo he took of the Stetson House back in 2001 on the Ohio Exploration Society page. In the window above the porch, you can see what appears to be a ghostly figure and here is that picture:

The Quaker Friends House Museum - In 1801, Ezekiel Clever, a devout Quaker, arrived in Waynesville from Virginia and built a home for his family who followed him the next year. Other Quakers came from Virginia as well, along with Quakers from Georgia and North and South Carolina. They wanted to get away from the slave states that they were living in because they were avowed abolitionists. The group established the Miami Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends in Clever's home in 1803. They quickly outgrew the space and began construction on the White Brick Meetinghouse in 1811. A schoolhouse, the Friends School, was built at the same time, which also served as a schoolhouse. The White Brick was built by John Satterthwaite in the traditional rectangular, gabled roof vernacular style. There are separate recessed doorways and long windows that hold six panes each. Most meetings of Quakers in southern Ohio can trace their origins to the White Brick House. In 1828, a division arose within the group and there was a split into the Orthodox and the Hicksite branches. The Hicksites kept the White Brick and the Orthodox would go on to build the Red Brick Meetinghouse in 1836. It was very unique to have two branches of Quakers in the same village.

In 1905, the Friends Boarding Home was built to the northeast of the White Brick Meetinghouse and established as a place for retired Quakers and single teachers to live. Several years of planning started in 1900 and the group raised $15,000 before grading of the land began. The Miami Gazette reported that the plans for the building were as such: "The building is to be 58 feet front by 50 feet deep, two story with basement below and unfinished attic above. The foundation and all walls are made of concrete, outside walls to be veneered with dressed brick, roof to be tile, supported by an iron post above the square. The contract includes complete installation of both city and rain water, the latter hot and cold in bathrooms, closets, wash stands and laundry. Light is provided for except fixtures. All drainage is to be provided and a 300-barrel cistern will be placed outside the building. The contract includes the laying of cement walks in front and at the sides of the building. The price complete on the entire contract is $10,000."

The Fox Brothers from Cincinnati were contracted to do the work, but they went bankrupt in 1905, so a man named Aaron B. Chandler took over supervising the construction. He was a Civil War veteran - yes, even as a Quaker - and he would be the First Superintendent of the Friends Boarding House. *Fun fact: There was a fire in 1900 that burned up all the law papers and council minutes. Chandler painstakingly re-wrote all the village's ordinances.* Lydia Ann Conard of New Vienna, Ohio agreed to become the first Matron of the house. Chandler's wife had died from cancer in 1903 and after working for three years with Lydia at the house, the two decided to get married.

Today, the building houses the Museum at the Friends Home. There are twenty-two rooms of historic exhibits. It houses more than exhibits though. Rumors of ghosts residing in this building have been floating about for decades. There is no kitchen in the building, but that doesn't stop the haunting sounds of kitchen-like activity. There is also the sound of an organ playing. The apparition of a young girl named Mary has been seen at times. Paranormal investigations have caught EVPs that seemed to be of a male who claimed to have been beat up in his sleep. The White Brick Meetinghouse has hauntings as well. A candle used to be placed in the window to let runaway slaves know that this was a safe haven for them. That ghostly candle can still sometimes be seen in the window. A former teacher who was petite and pulled her hair back into a bun has been seen staring out of one of the windows by passers-by.

The Hammel House Inn - The Hammel House Inn is very unique when it comes to the facade. The building almost appears to be two buildings smashed together because half of it is brick and half of it is wood and there is a long railed balcony connecting the two to each other. Originally, a log tavern stood on this spot on Wabash Square on Main Street and was owned by James Corey. That opened in 1787 and was a stop on the stagecoach line. A man named James Jennings arrived in town from New Jersey and he bought the property. The log tavern was razed and a wooden frame structure was built to replace it some time before 1806. This opened as a tavern known as Jennings' House. Jennings did not own title to the land until a man named David Faulkner got a patent for the land in 1807. For those that don't know what a land patent is, simply put, it's a land grant document signed by a government head like a president and sealed, making it patent or permanent. Faulkner then deeded the lots to Jennings, of which there were 3.5, for $350. In 1817, Jennings deeded the business to John Warrell and in 1822, Warrell added the Flemish bond brick portion of the building we see today and it is in the federal vernacular style. There were originally three stories built, but the third story was removed later. During his ownership, the inn hosted President Martin Van Buren and Vice president Richard Johnson. He ran the business until 1831 and then sold to Keene, Barnhart & Durand, and later N. McLean ran the inn. In 1841, the inn would be bought by Enoch Hammel and would come to be known as the Hammel House Inn.

Under the ownership of Hammel, the inn would experience its most popularity. He was a Wayne Township trustee and candidate for county sheriff. Things got a bit too wild at the inn for some of the Quaker residents in the village. One of them in particular, Mrs. Anna O'Neal, described the activities at the Hammel House as "bacchanalian revelry and ribald conduct." She lived right across the street and was so disgusted with what she considered daily debauchery, she parked a large wagon in front of her cabin, so that her children could not see the antics at the inn. Hammel ran the inn until 1863.

A man named W.O. Gustin bought the inn, but we're not sure on dates other than he was the owner during the 1930s. He would be the owner to remodel and refit the building, so that it had electricity and hot and cold running water. He removed the third floor at this time as well. He wanted to make the place a first-class establishment. He also renamed it Gustin House and added a livery and feed stable. Anybody staying there should have been really careful about leaving their horses in the stable because the rumor is that Gustin had a taste for fine horse flesh. Long-time Waynesville residents and restaurateurs, the Bowman Family, bought the property and operate it as Hammel House Inn, a bed and breakfast. At some point before this became a bed and breakfast in the 1980s, it was apartments.

The Hammel House Inn hosts its own Ghost and Goblet tour every October and is a stop on the town's walking tour. And that makes sense because this building is considered the most haunted location in Waynesville. One of the more frequently seen apparitions belongs to a cat. Yes, we have another bed and breakfast with a ghost cat, but this one is unique in that we have never heard of these other spirit cats leaving fur behind. This cat routinely leaves fur on the stairs where it likes to sit. The cat has also been seen roaming the halls and disappears quite often. Disembodied footsteps and voices and other poltergeist-like activity like bottles and other items falling, have been reported.

A shadow figure has been seen on multiple occasions. One of those reports came from a man who stayed in Room #3. He had the inn completely to himself and so he was shocked when he was awakened by the noise of a loud party. He flew into the hallway to yell at the partygoers. It was completely silent in the hallway. He checked downstairs and saw no one. When he awoke the next morning, he saw a shadow figure floating in his room and then watched as it passed through the wall into Room #2.

The most famous ghost here belongs to Room #4. There are only five guest rooms, so the chances of ending up in this haunted room are pretty high. The story goes that a young merchant came to the village peddling his wares, which may have been gold watches or some other kind of jewelry. He checked into the inn and you probably assume that he either died in his room of natural causes or suicide or that someone murdered him since he seems to be hanging around in the afterlife. But we can't tell you what happened because this is one of our history's mysteries disappearances. He checked in, but never checked out and was never seen again. At least, not alive. If this truly is his ghost, then we think it is safe to assume that he met with some kind of bad Fate. And since he was carrying expensive wares, we think it's safe to assume the motive was robbery. A modern article claims that the room was the scene of a grizzly 19th century murder, but no links to evidence for this. There are reports of seeing his full-bodied apparition in the room, but even more common are the complaints of him getting into bed with guests.

Mary Fessler wrote a blog on Stories from the Playground about her son's experiences while working at the Hammel House Inn and she shared the following:

"On at least two occasions, he heard what sounded like an unseen girl crying in the basement. His co-worker also reported a similar occurrence, claiming that she had heard a young girl ask her to 'hurry up', and had witnessed glasses sliding off of tables, seemingly without explanation."

It is possible that the cries of the young girl described by this woman's son are residual and date back to the Underground Railroad. Tunnels ran through this area and people who have basements in town, complain of hearing children crying in those basements.

Amanda wrote to us, "The cemetery is reportedly a portal to hell and one girl claimed to have seen a towering black form that reached all the way up to the sky from the plot. To be honest, the stories about the cemetery may be more due to overactive imaginations and some illegal substances than any otherworldly activity. My own experiences in Waynesville have been more unsettling feelings and nothing more." Do the former residents and guests of these places still roam about in the afterlife? Are sightings just wishful thinking or overactive imaginations? Is Waynesville haunted? That is for you to decide!

Here is a fun extra featuring the Holloway Tavern, which was owned by David Holloway. Holloway was a well-known Quaker in town and he had a prime spot on Third and High Streets, where he built a store and tavern. He bought the lots from previously mentioned, David Faulkner. The following is taken from an article, “Miami Monthly Meeting, Part I” by Robert Hatton printed in the Miami-Gazette (March 15, 1876):

"David Holloway (b. June 23rd, 1771 Stafford, Va.-d. December 31st, 1847 in Richmond, Indiana) was his (Roland Richards’) son-in-law, having married (March 12th, 1794 at Hopewell Monthly Meeting) his second daughter Hannah (b. January 31st, 1774 in Philadelphia), who was an excellent Friend. David had much of a consequential air about him, and in the earlier part of his time was tenacious of plainness, bringing his children to meeting, etc., and would close his store on meeting days. It is related of him that when suspenders were first brought about, his sons, then in their teens, procured some, which their father no sooner discovered, that he took them away and burned them. Subsequently, the youngsters procured flax and twisted it into a substitute. On this becoming known to David he destroyed them and reprimanded his children. This produced a dislike to the society and when they reached majority they left Friends and married from among them. No doubt David was perfectly sincere in his views, as he never adopted the condemned suspenders in his own wardrobe. About the year 1815 he moved to Cincinnati and the general depression of the commercials affairs in 1819-20 added to some unfortunate endorsements resulted in the loss of most of the acquirements of years of active labor. In 1822 he removed to a farm in Indiana, about four miles east of Richmond, where he remained a few years; and after several other changes closed his life from a cancer. His very superior wife survived him several years." 

Show Notes:
Ghost Tours and Classes
http://www.friendshomemuseum.org/ghost_tours.html

Dayton Daily News: "Local community 'the most haunted town in Ohio.'" http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/lifestyles/holiday/waynesville-most-haunted-town-in-ohio/nbbp2/
Forgotten Ohio: Stetson House
http://www.forgottenoh.com/Counties/Warren/stetson.html
 
Warren County and Beyond (via RootsWeb): "America's Cowboy Hat Had Beginnings In Waynesville"
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohwarren/Bogan/bogan003.htm

Ohio Exploration Society: Stetson House
http://www.ohioexploration.com/story8.htm

Forgotten Ohio: The Quaker Meeting House
http://www.forgottenoh.com/Counties/Warren/quakerhouse.html

Haunted Places: Hammel House Inn
http://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/hammel-house-inn/

Theresa's Haunted House History of the Tri-State: Ohio's Haunted Hammel House
http://theresashauntedhistoryofthetri-state.blogspot.com/2015/07/ohios-haunted-hammel-house.html

The Hammel House Inn: Ghostly Waynesville
http://thehammelhouseinn.com/content/ghostly-waynesville

Enquirer: Waynesville Haunts Sought
http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/10/25/loc_waynesville_haunts.html

http://www.waynesvilleohio.com/history.htm
http://villageofwaynesville.org/location/
http://caesarscreekpioneervillage.org/cabins.html
http://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/major-topics/fossils-in-ohio
http://qugenswohio.blogspot.com/2005/11/ezekiel-cleaver-one-of-earliest-quaker.html
http://qugenswohio.blogspot.com/2005/06/miami-monthly-meeting-of-society-of.html
http://www.friendshomemuseum.org/index.html
http://waynesgenhis.blogspot.com/2005/12/old-miami-house-in-waynesville-ohio.html

25 Days of Creepy Christmas - True Christmas Ghost Experiences

We found some good ghost stories that took place during the holiday season while perusing the Internet and we thought we would share them:

MOTHER'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT 
-Arthur H.

My mother, to whom I was very close, passed away in 1964 when I was 17 years old. I left home that year and moved to Ontario from Nova Scotia. In 1969 I met a girl whom I will call Karen and we got married in March of 1970.

In December of 1971 we were expecting our first child. We were living in a small 1-1/2 bedroom bungalow. There was a fireplace in the living room. My wife and I loved the fireplace and we had it lit every night.

It was Christmas Eve, 1971, and we had just finished putting the gifts under the tree and a nice fire gave off a beautiful glow. On the tree, one string of lights, which was supposed to flash, had stopped several days before.

It was five minutes to midnight when the fireplace suddenly just about went out, and the string of lights started to flash - and the other lights stopped flashing! My wife and I were sitting on the floor and it had become very chilly in the room.

I looked over to my recliner chair...

and a figure was sitting there -- my mother with a big beautiful smile on her face! My wife, who had never met my mother, said she could see the same thing. This "ghost" never spoke, but just kept looking at me and my wife and smiling.

At 12 midnight, the fire in the fireplace started up again and the lights on the tree stopped flashing and the others started flashing again.

I looked over in the chair and the ghost was gone. No matter what I did to those Christmas lights, they never flashed again.

SEASIDE GHOST
-Mike B.

This happened on Christmas Eve, 1961. I had returned from college in London to spend Christmas in my hometown of Scarborough, on the north-east coast of England. In the afternoon, I went into the centre of town to buy Christmas presents. At about 4 p.m., I was ready to return home. Scarborough has two bays divided by a headland on which stands a ruined castle. A road, the Marine Drive, runs round the bottom of the headland from one bay to the other.

As I had not seen the sea for some time, I decided to walk this way home to where I lived in the North Bay. In those days the Marine Drive was unlit and very dark. I had gone about two hundred yards when a car came toward me round the bend of the drive. It was traveling quite slowly and for some time the beam of the headlamps fell on the railings on the seaward side of the road.

About 20 yards in front of me was a ghost standing at the railings looking down into the sea. The form was of someone dressed in a monk's cowl, hooded, drooping sleeves, a complete form, but clearly insubstantial -- the kind of figure most people accept as a stereotypical ghost. I was very afraid and stood rooted to the spot.

The ghost then turned toward me and, as if it was as frightened of me as I was of it, it began to retreat backward. There were no discernible limbs, but the bottom of the figure appeared to writhe about. It then disappeared out of the beam of the headlamp into the darkness. I decided to go no further round the drive, but turned around to return to the South Bay and catch a bus.

My right leg went. I found it very difficult to walk, but managed to hobble to the bus stop where I eventually caught a bus home. My leg was better by the time I got off the bus. This infirmity had never happened to me before, nor has it since.

I later made enquiries and found someone had committed suicide from somewhere near the position of the ghost. They had removed their clothes and left them neatly folded on the drive before leaping into the sea. That said, there can be no incontrovertible connection between this and the ghost I saw.

THE LOST GHOST
-Alle G.

Around Christmas time, 2001, I had a few weird experiences involving a spirit that must still live in our house. One of the past owners, a lady, died in our house. Around Christmas time, I felt the presence more and a lot stronger than I usually did.

One night, I decided to draw whatever my hand felt like drawing. I drew a bottle with ribbons exploding out of it, then a yacht... then it felt like someone was moving my hand for me. My hand drew a circular shape that at first looked like a peach. My hand lifted and dropped and made a mark inside the circle. My hand lifted again and dropped and it made a weird curve. My hand drew another dot. I regained full control over my hand again and I looked at what I had a drawn: a weird smiley face.

I told my mum about it and she said to try it again the next night, and so I did. I was painting some landscapes in water colours when I felt the presence again. My mum had said that she thought her name was Faye, so that name was stuck in my mind.

I asked, "What is your name?" and I let my hand be controlled. I wrote what looked like the name Faye. I asked what the last name was. I wrote something that looked like "Edith." This was all confusing. I asked why it was here, and the reply looked like "I'm lost." I asked why it was here with me, and the reply looked kind of like "crussby," but was still very hard to read. I asked, "What?" and the answer cleared up a bit, but still not a real word. I asked again, and the final reply came what looked like "crusty." I am still puzzled, but the spirit may have meant the house was crusty since it is falling to bits in some areas.

Later on, my mum confirmed that the lady's name was Edith. This freaked me out big time, and I still felt the presence strongly for a while until a few days after Christmas.

HGB Ep. 171 - Casey Moore's Oyster House

 
Moment in Oddity - Exploding Killer Lakes
Suggested by: Michael Rogers

In all of recorded history, there have only been two exploding killer lakes and they were both in the country of Cameroon. The first occurred in 1984 at Lake Monoun and killed 37 people. The second occurred at Lake Nyos in 1986 and was more deadly. Three thousand animals and 1,746 villagers were killed during this event. So what exactly is an exploding killer lake? Basically, these are lakes that were formed from a hydrovolcanic eruption that created a crater in the lakes. Carbon dioxide builds up within this crater over time, just like the CO2 in a soda bottle. The water serves as a type of cap keeping the CO2 locked down, but sometimes something happens that causes that cap effect to shift. It could be an earthquake or even a monsoon-like rainstorm. In the case of Lake Nyos, it appears that a simple landslide broke the surface and released a giant cloud of carbon dioxide. It exploded upward and stripped the air of oxygen. This could happen again and scientists are looking for a way to prevent it in the future. Exploding killer lakes certainly are odd!

This Day in History - Thomas Paine Writes "These Are the Times That Try Men's Souls"

On this day, December 19th, in 1776, Thomas Paine publishes his first essay in a collection of essays that would become "The American Crisis." Thomas Paine, was born in Thetford in Norfolk on January 29, 1737. He met Benjamin Franklin in London and asked the man to help him emigrate to the new colonies. He did so in 1774. Paine settled in Philadelphia and became a journalist. He wrote articles on various topics, but in 1776 he wrote the pamphlet "Common Sense" and established himself as a revolutionary propagandist. He had only been in the colonies for a year, but he committed himself to American independence. During the Revolutionary War, Paine wrote a collection of essays and compiled them in "The American Crisis." The first of these essays was published on the 19th and began with the famous line, "These are the times that try men's souls."

Casey Moore's Oyster House (Suggested by Alicia Taylor)

Tempe, Arizona is the seventh largest city in the state of Arizona. The town was built on an agricultural base and grew out of the combining of two distinct pioneer towns. Many of the original historical structures built in Tempe have survived and its one of the town's greatest attributes. One of these buildings was originally a family home that is now a restaurant named Casey Moore's Oyster House. Locals love to gather for a beer and seafood. Patrons and employees all claim that the restaurant is haunted by several spirits. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Casey Moore's Oyster House.

For 1,500 years the Hohokam People called the future Tempe, Arizona home. They were here until 1450, leaving behind innovative canals they had built to bring the waters of the Salt River to their crops. Those same canals laid the foundation for the current irrigation system. Charles Trumbull Hayden came to the area in 1870 and established a settlement along the Salt River that he named Hayden’s Ferry. He built a flour mill, warehouses, blacksmith shops. There was also a ferry to cross the Salt River. The flour mill still stands as a historic structure and was operated until 1990. The Hayden home also still stands today. Hispanic families arrived from northern Mexico and established a nearby town called San Pablo. Eventually, Hayden's Ferry and San Pablo combined to form Tempe. There is a place in Greece called Vale of Tempe and an Englishman named “Lord” Darrell Duppa, who had helped establish Phoenix, suggested the name Tempe because it had the same lush beauty of the Vale of Tempe. The railroad came in 1887 and Tempe soon became an important business and shipping center because of the agriculture in the area. 

Education in Arizona can trace its origins to Tempe. In 1885, the Arizona legislature chose Tempe for the Territorial Normal School, which trained teachers for Arizona schools. William A. Moeur and his brother Benjamin were prominent members of Tempe and William helped set up the public school system in town. He was a member of the first school board and chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors from 1912 to 1915. In 1910, he and his wife Mary built a home on three lots at the corner of 9th and Ash. The house is a mix of architectural styles. The roof is Victorian with gabled vents, front and dormer with a bellcast copper roof. The house itself is Western Colonial with the typical square floor plan and columned porch. There are two stories built mostly from brick and there is a sun room at the south end of the house. Masonry blocks outline all the corners and edges of the home. It is a larger home consisting of 4,061 square feet. William lived in the home until his death in the house in 1929. His wife Mary remained until she died in the house in the 1940s.

The house passed through several owners and there are discrepancies as to the variety of businesses it housed. It definitely was a boarding house for a time and some claim that it was a bordello as well. In 1973, it underwent extensive renovation to open it up as a restaurant. It was called Ninth & Ash. In 1986, another owner bought the property and did even more renovating. A covered patio on the northeast corner was enclosed as was a covered patio along the north facade. A fire escape staircase was added to the west facade and the sun room on the south facade was also enclosed. The nicest addition was adding several pieces of stained art glass to the window panes. This restaurant was called Casey Moore's Oyster House and it is the current business there. It originally had been at 7th St. and Maple, but had been displaced.

The restaurant's website claims that Casey Moore was born in 1886 to Irish immigrants. She loved to sing and play the piano and she invited friends and neighbors to her house often. The restaurant is apparently named for her, but we're not exactly sure why or how she is connected to the restaurant. The interior of the bar is decorated in a Scottish motif, while the outside is very Irish. A real fun fact about this bar is that  it has its very own Blarney Stone. This is not one that you would want to bend over backwards and kiss though. This one has been thoroughly peed upon! This is a bathroom area outside for the men. You just step inside, unzip and donate your beer back to the bar. Okay, so you pee on something that is suppose to be a replica of the Blarney Stone. There is a motion activated waterfall and a little moat to wash away your contribution. There is also a koi pond and a band of stray cats that hang around the spacious patio.

The restaurant has reports from neighbors, patrons and employees about strange occurrences and sightings. While we usually hear 3am being the magic hour for spooks, it would seem that 4am is the witching hour at Casey's. Neighbors report seeing a couple dancing in an upstairs room when no one is suppose to be in the restaurant. Police have been called out to investigate the intruders and there is always no one there. The alarms are even still set. It has been surmised that since William and Mary died in the house, that this ghostly couple is them still enjoying their house in the afterlife. Did they used to dance in the house and this is some kind of residual energy?

Workers claim that utensils fly off tables in the upper area and interestingly, forks end up hitting the same spot on the wall. Place settings, chairs and tables are moved about during the night and employees find them in a disarray in the morning. A full room of customers has witnessed paintings come crashing down from the wall and lamps above tables swing by themselves. The apparition of a young woman has been seen. She is described as having dark black hair and light eyes. People wonder if she was a prostitute in the brothel and whether she was murdered upstairs. She disappears when people's eyes meet her gaze. Most only see her from the corner of their eyes. Some claim she expresses displeasure when couples get a little romantic in the restaurant.

A bartender named Austin Owen claimed that during reconstruction an old photograph was found of a young boy. One of the owners kept the photo. Employees claimed to see the spirit of a young boy roaming about the house and when the owner showed the picture to the employees, they agreed that the ghost resembled the boy in the picture.

The restaurant embraces the tales of hauntings. The website states, "It’s no secret in and around Tempe, that 'Our House' has a mysterious history. In the wee hours of the morning, passers-by have seen a woman dressed in 'turn of the century' clothing dancing in our upstairs dining room. Articles disappear and suddenly show up in odd places. Neck ties are 'tugged' and objects become weightless However, strange this may seem to some, the spirits that linger in this old establishment are “family” to us here at Casey’s."

As we researched, we found another haunted restaurant that had been run out of a historic property in Tempe, the Hayden House. The restaurant was called Monti's La Casa Vieja and it had been the oldest restaurant in the city covering 11,000 square feet. It had been in business for 60 years when it closed on November 17th in 2014. The owner, Michael Monti, wanted to pursue other avenues and the cost of beef was too much. His father opened the restaurant 1956 and it was known for its Roman bread, steak and historic memorabilia. A real estate firm bought the site and plans were made to develop two high-rise towers on the site. The house was rumored to be slated for demolition, but it was a protected historic property. We're not sure of the state of the site today.

The hauntings reported here were two different types. The full-bodied apparition of a cowboy had been seen in one of the rooms named the Mural Room. The Fountain Room featured disembodied laughter and the sound of clinking glasses and cutlery. Do these restless spirits still remain on the property even though the restaurant is no longer open?

Tempe has a long history with many historic structures that could be retaining the essence of those who built the town. Is Casey Moore's Oyster House haunted? That is for you to decide!

25 Days of Creepy Christmas - Legend of the Christmas Spider

Some of you may have heard of the legend of the Christmas Spider. It's a pretty heartwarming story. Here is a synopsis:

Mother and children are very poor, but they manage to find a beautiful tree in the woods to cut down and bring home for Christmas. They get it set up and the wonderful pine smell wafts through the house. It really is a gorgeous tree, bit it's missing something: Christmas ornaments. The family is so poor that they cannot afford to decorate the tree and they go to bed sad. What they didn't know is that a little spider had come along for the ride. It had been hiding up in one of the branches. It heard what the family had said and it thought to itself, I wonder if perhaps I could wrap my web all around the tree and give the tree a little decoration. So the spider worked all night, wrapping itself around and around the tree, leaving webbing behind it. The family woke up the next day to find a Christmas miracle. The spider's cobwebs had turned to silver and gold tinsel and the tree was beautiful.

But we're into creepy around here, so this story needs some adjusting. This is more like it when it comes to the legend of the Christmas Spider:

A poor family decided to venture out into the woods to find a tree to put up for Christmas. The entered the canopy of trees that all but shut out the daylight. Twisted and gnarled branches hung all around them and brambles pulled at the rags they wore for clothes. Something in the distance made a hideous noise and branches snapped under the feet of a creature unseen. The family pulled up their courage and walked deeper into the murky darkness of the forest. They finally came upon a clearing with a gorgeous tree in the center. It stood seven feet tall and had full branches. It was the perfect tree. The family quickly chopped it down, sneaking peaks over their shoulders as they felt as though something was watching them. They dragged the tree back to their house, relieved to have exited the forest alive.

They put the tree up and it was very nice, but it was missing ornaments. They went to bed sad that they had nothing to with which to decorate the tree. In the middle of the night came a horrible crashing. The family flew down the stairs to see what had made the noise. Their front door was hanging off its hinges and was nearly snapped in two. What had the strength to break a solid wooden door? They quickly found out when a hulking beast appeared in the doorway. Eight black eyes peered out at them as one fuzzy long leg slipped through the opening and then another. Before long, an enormous spider, straight out of Lord of the Rings, was standing in their front room next to the tree. "You stole my tree," the spider roared. And then he ate the whole family in one gulp!

Wouldn't the Grimm Brothers be pleased with our version?